Hypoglycaemic effect of the salt bush (Atriplex halimus) - a feeding source of the Sand Rat (Psammomys obesus)

Abstract

The fact that the so-called "Sand Rat" (Psammomys obesus) is highly susceptible to diabetes, and succumbs to it while changing its food from green leaves to laboratory pellets, puzzled us for a long time. Several hypotheses for this phenomenon were suggested, based on the idea that the sand rats are predisposed to diabetes, and that diabetes occurs when the rats are fed on a high caloric diet. In addition to this, it was noticed that the diabetic rats have high plasma insulin levels, which indicated an impairment in their peripheral utilization of glucose. - Assuming that the green leaves which the sand rats find in nature prevent their becoming diabetic, we examined the main feeding source of the sand rats in Israel for possible hypoglycaemic activity. Press juice from green leaves of Atriplex halimus, as well as their water extract and dialysate, were fed to normal and to alloxan-diabetic albino rats, and showed a significant hypoglycaemic effect without any decrease in appetite. Moreover, their food and water intake was increased by 50-800% within 5 h after treatment. The effect was also preserved in the ash of the dialysate. The composition of the hypoglycaemic principle is now under study. It is not based on the presence of cations, since the active extracts contained K, Na, Ca, Mg and Al only. © 1969 Springer-Verlag.